


Break

by stellarmeadow



Series: Season 3 codas/missing scenes [20]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode Tag, M/M, episode 3.21
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-30
Updated: 2013-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-09 23:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/779317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarmeadow/pseuds/stellarmeadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What's Steve's breaking point?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Break

**Author's Note:**

> Set at the very end of 3.21/immediately following the ep. Spoilers involved.

Steve hadn't said a word. 

Danny had kept a close eye on him since the shooting had stopped. Had, in fact, been all but holding his breath as Steve had held his gun on Wo Fat, a long moment that had stretched out far too long for Danny's sanity. Or what was left of it.

The logical, rational part of his brain that knew Steve told Danny that Steve wouldn't shoot Wo Fat in cold blood. He hadn't done it any of the other chances he'd had; he wasn't going to do it now. It wasn't who Steve was. 

The part of Danny's brain that had seen Steve in North Korea, that had been there every step of the way as they'd seen more and more of what Wo Fat had done to Steve's family, to his friends, and to him...that part not only wasn't sure, it wanted to shoot the bastard _for_ Steve.

But Steve had dropped his gun and walked away without a word. 

Not that he had to say anything. Wo Fat didn't deserve the breath, and their team didn't need words to know how Steve was feeling. 

They'd all had their own losses at his hands in one way or another.

Danny had taken over, directing everyone and everything, while Steve had gone off to make a call. His mom, no doubt, telling her the news. His thousand yard stare was firmly in place when he returned, but Danny knew what it was holding back. 

He just hoped they were away from the cameras by the time the dam broke.

Once emergency services showed up, Steve started barking orders, personally checking each individual to make sure no one was going to somehow spirit Wo Fat away this time. 

When Wo Fat was finally in an ambulance, Danny told Walker and her camera guy to ride in a squad car, and whatever she saw in his face was enough to make her do it without an argument. He climbed into the Camaro and waited until they were following the ambulance out, speeding down the road to the hospital.

"Hey," Danny said softly, eyeing Steve carefully.

"Not now."

Danny nodded, tapping his fingers for a moment before reaching up and turning the radio onto one of the incredibly annoying 80s stations Steve loved.

He was convinced he didn't imagine the slightest bit of relaxation in Steve's death grip on the steering wheel.

Danny watched from a distance at the hospital as Steve made sure the place was locked down tighter than Fort Knox before marching back to the Camaro. Danny considered demanding the keys for about half a second before deciding this wasn't the place for Steve to lose it. 

"Can you go by my place for a minute?" he asked when Steve peeled away from the hospital emergency entrance.

"Why?" Steve snapped.

Danny rolled his eyes. "I tore my shirt out there in the jungle."

"It wasn't exactly the jungle," Steve said. "And don't you have a spare in the trunk?"

"This is the spare from the trunk."

"Fine." Steve hit the gas and made it to Danny's in record time. He sat there, engine running, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. 

Danny unbuckled his seatbelt. "Are you really going to sit here with the engine running?"

"How long does it take you to change your shirt?"

"Oh for the love of--" Danny raked a hand through his hair. "Would you turn off the car and drag your ass inside, please?"

Steve huffed a breath at him before turning off the car with jerky motions. Danny could feel the anger practically rolling off him. He didn't say anything, though, until they were inside Danny's apartment with the door safely closed, Danny standing between it and Steve. 

"Okay," Danny said.

Steve blinked at him. "Okay, what?"

"'Okay, what?'" Danny stared at him. "You just shot down Wo Fat and put him in the hospital under about a hundred armed guards."

"And?"

Danny closed his eyes and counted to ten. "And," he said, opening his eyes again, "you didn't shoot him."

"I couldn't."

"I know."

Steve shook his head, his throat working for a moment before he took a deep breath. "I wanted to. My finger was on the trigger. But...I couldn't."

"I know."

"No, you don't. Everything in me was screaming at me to shoot him and be done with it." Steve took a step forward, real emotion on his face for the first time since they'd shot down the helicopter. "Cameras, no cameras, I didn't care. I wanted him to die so he'd never be a threat again. Alive...he'll always be a threat." Steve swallowed against the hoarseness in his voice, but it was still there when he continued. "But I couldn't do it."

"I know."

"No." Steve shook his head slowly. "I know you think it was some kind of code or that it's because it's wrong, but that wasn't it. I didn't care."

Danny frowned. "Then why couldn't you shoot him?"

"Answers."

There were too many ways to go with that response. "I don't understand."

"I knew," Steve said slowly, "that I would never get any answers from my mother about what really happened if Wo Fat was dead." 

He took a shaky breath, his eyes haunted, making Danny want to reach out and touch him, but he was afraid to just yet. "What does that say," Steve continued, his tone making Danny's chest ache, "that I trust a guy I would sooner kill than look at ever again to give me answers more than I do my own mother?"

Danny didn't have an answer for that. "Babe..." He shook his head, stepping forward, his arms out. "Come here."

Steve didn't fight him as Danny put his arms around him. Steve stood there for a long moment, unmoving, before he moved, arms wrapping tightly around Danny's back in return. 

___  
END

**Author's Note:**

> Want to learn more about me and my writing? Visit my page at <http://www.jamiemeadowswrites.com/>


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